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HVAC
Articles |
Systems = Success – Part
2
by
Tom Grandy, president Grandy & Associates
Last month, during Part 1 of this article, we talked about the fact that
86% of all companies in the United States of American have 25 employees or less? We also commented on the government statistic that said 90% of all the businesses that start up this year will fail the very first year while only one company of out a thousand that starts up this year will ever see its 20th birthday. Man, that is a real confidence builder wasn’t it. According to Uncle Sam most failed because of poor paperwork. In other words the typical company owner knows what to physically do to provide the product and/or service but very few understand the business side of business. We next talked about the franchise industry where 97% of its companies make it through their first year and 95% make it through their first five years. Why? The answer was systems. We looked at McDonalds and we found out that systems produced:
• Consistent product quality
• Allowed the company to hire employees with a minimum of education and/or ability to do the job
• We found that problems could be solved quickly by simply reviewing the steps of the system.
• And we found that with systems in place the entire businesses overall quality and profitability were assured.
Before we take a look at the systems your company needs, I would like to take spend a minute or two talking about a word that is near and dear to my heart. It is called profit. Profit is NOT a bad word. I repeat…..profit is NOT a bad word. A number of individuals within our government are telling the public profit is bad, evil and even sinful. That is totally wrong! Profit is what funds the growth of the company. Profit is what allows the company to expand and create new jobs across the country. Profit not only funds growth but the profits generated by companies across this nation account for a huge amount of the total tax dollars that are collected by our federal government. Don’t let anyone tell you profit is a dirty word. Without profit our country would fall, from an economic standpoint. If you remove the profit motive from a company the incentive to grow disappears, jobs are sent to other countries and the vehicle for creating new jobs and more taxes disappears. There, now I feel better, back to McDonalds University.
When the McDonald University graduates return home they hire lower paying employees who are taught the system for their specific area of responsibility. What is the bottom line? The owner makes a consistent, significant, profit without having to get into the specific daily operation of the company. Sounds good doesn’t it.
Well guess what, developing systems within your company will produce the same kind of consist results. How did McDonald’s develop their systems? The answer is one system at a time, the same way you will. Pick an area. A good place to begin might be when the phone rings. Begin to document, on paper, what should be happening. Who should answer the phone? What do you want them saying to the customer? Script their opening statement (so it will be consistent) and create the detailed questions for your customer service representative to ask. Once the questions are asked, what information needs to be put into the company’s customer base? Again, whose responsibility is it to enter the data and what is the expected timeframe for data entry, etc. Are you getting the point?
Create systems for every aspect of your business. Set up systems for ordering materials, the sales presentation process, the physical receipt of inventory, payment of invoices, the running of rewards and/or bonus systems, etc. As each system is created training becomes very organized and everyone knows exactly what they are to do to create a consistent message to the customer. Allow your employees be part of the process by writing the initial “current” procedures themselves. Then management can tweak the system to be sure all things are happening the way they want them to happen. Place the written systems/procedures into a three-ring notebook and review them often, at least on an annual basis. Once the systems are in place some amazing things begin to happen. Like the owner of a McDonald’s franchise, you will begin to experience the following:
• The company will be consistent in the way it handles each and every customer
• Problems will be recognized immediately and will be corrected quickly by reviewing the system
• Things will run smoothly allowing the owner to spend time working on the business, instead of in it.
• The company will earn a consistent profit
• The owner will be able to take more and more time off since the systems run the company – not the owner.
• Training new employees is simple….follow the system
• When it comes time to retire, the company will be much easier to sell since the systems run the company, not the owner.
It takes time to set up systems but the benefits of investing the time, energy and money will bear a lot of fruit year after year.
If you want to systematize your service department you might want to take a good look at our performance-based ProfitMaxx software. It puts the systems in place to literally measure every aspect of the service technician’s productivity and profitability. Check it out on our website at www.GrandyAssociates.com or perhaps you would like to attend one of our FREE Webinars. Give us a call.
Tom Grandy, president
Grandy & Associates
One Executive Blvd.
Suite LL-4
Owensboro, KY 42301
Phone: 800-432-7963
FAX: 270-684-7425
E-mail: TomGrandy@GrandyAssociates.com
Website: www.GrandyAssociates.com
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